Daniels To End Gubenatorial Bid, NY Times Reports

The New York Times is reporting that former New York secretary of state Randy Daniels will drop out of the governor's race and support John Faso. According to the Times, both men said no deals were cut in relation to Daniels' departure. Daniels reportedly said he wanted to step out of the race and promote unity within the GOP and the state Conservative Party.

The narrowing of the race to two may help shed more attention on Faso, the former Assembly minority leader, who has been shown in recent polls to be somewhat of an unknown even though he leads most polls. Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld is Faso's remaining competition.

In a move that got little press, Faso late this week unveiled a school property-tax relief plan. The plan calls for the doubling of the STAAR expemptions for senior citizens over a four-year period. In addition, Faso is proposing to cap increases in local school tax levies by 4% a year, except in the case of enrollment increases or increases for new construction. Faso also wants to give local school districts a break by eliminating costly state regulations and making it more difficult for the state legislature to dump "unfunded mandates" onto the districts.

The Journal News today seems to have caught GOP senatorial candidate John Spencer in a bit of an inconsistency in his criticism of Sen. Hillary Clinton for taking money from an Iranian American PAC. In a January press release, Spencer criticized Clinton for taking money from the PAC, which he described as supportive of the Iranian regime. In today's story, the Journal News reports Spencer has had no such criticism for Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., who was the beneficiary of a fund-raising event held by the same PAC last summer. Feeney, the newspaper reported, is a key Spencer backer who hosted Spencer's visit to Washington to meet conservative lawmakers on Thursday.